Sunday, 22 October 2017

First Step In The Right Direction

Week 2 - Internship

It
is now 2 weeks since we set foot in the hospital though we should have reported
by 3rd October, 2017 making it 3 weeks. This second week, we had
fairly gotten familiar with the place and how activities run. So we were up to
the duties expected of us. Though with the much will to get done as we would
have loved to, sometimes reality checks in and sometimes we just got to do what
we can do to the best of our abilities. For instance, on the first day, I
planned to be at the pharmacy by 8am so I am able to stock take for 1 hour and
thereafter, do ward rounds and plan on how to follow up with my patients
thereafter. I had no idea that stock taking and updating of the stock cards
would take most of the morning hours. Before I knew it, it was close to 1pm. My
work being interjected with occasional dispensing to patients. So I had to
juggle between stock taking and intermittent dispensing meds. In order to be
efficient and deliver results, we saw it fitting to meet as intern pharmacists
and plan on how to go about with our activities and how to jointly conduct
pharmacy rounds given the challenges of having inadequate preceptors. Indeed,
we had a fruitful meeting despite not being able to conduct the ward rounds as
I had planned.

Prior
to the start of the internship, I took a short online course offered by the
Institute for Health Improvement (www.ihi.org)
focusing on a Model for Improvement, as
well as one I am still taking called Leadership and Organizing for change. As
it turns out, this week, I have had the opportunity to test some of what I
learnt in relation to effectively planning as well identifying colleagues and
sharing about how to organize for possible changes in addition to what we
learnt while at University.

4
important things happened this week. The first one was my interaction with the in
charge Nurse which revealed to me what our predecessors had done. Sister In
Charge, as they are popularly called here, came to Level 6 pharmacy where I
was. Apparently, the pharmacy had been closed for a week ever since our
predecessors had already signed out. To find the pharmacy open was something
exciting. It was clear from her warm greetings and exchange of pleasantries
that our presence as intern pharmacists was anticipated to fill a gap. Sister,
told me how our predecessors, especially the one on Level 6, where I was,
always came on time, did bedside dispensing, followed up her patients and made
recommendations to them and patient care had improved. She told me of one of
the scenarios where one of the medicines, Piperacillin/Tazobactam better
popularly referred to as PISA had been prescribed to a patient yet regrettably
the patient could not afford the full dose. As is the case many times with most
Ugandan hospitals, these drugs are usually out of stock and PISA did not miss
out on these list with the most available drug being ceftriaxone. The
alternative switch which had been done was to treat the patient with 2g of
Ceftriaxone for a couple of days yet no much positive effect was being noticed.
The then intern pharmacist, suggested to the team that rather than use 2g
Ceftriaxone the dose be stepped up to 4g with daily monitoring after assessing
all aspects of the drug in relationship to the medicine in question (2g
Ceftriaxone is usually the dose prescribed, and not 1g ceftriaxone due to
reasons of efficacy), Indeed, in the consequent days, true to her word, the
patient had considerable improvement which was very appreciative of her.

This
small acts of commitment of my predecessor had earned her reputation in the
ward as being very resourceful. “Will you be like your predecessors,” Sister
asked me to which I responded in the affirmative. Listening to the positive
feedback given by the Sister in Charge came at the right time as it provided me
with the positive energy to follow. To get to learn of how interested the
sister in charge was willing to cooperate with us was indeed heartwarming and I
look forward to working closely with all of them.

The
second thing that happened was the first debriefing that we did after doing our
first joint pharmacy rounds as Intern Pharmacists on the General Gynecology
ward. We evaluated what went well on the rounds, what we would need to improve
next time and test changes to try out. Indeed, though we surely have a long way
to go, I am positive that we have started in the right direction. One
observation was the importance of establishing rapport with the patient to
allow them open up while taking history. This meant introducing ourselves and
reason for why we wanted to interact with the patients lest you could be sure
that the patients would keep secret their challenges for fear of not knowing who
we were. We hope that in our consequent interactions we shall be able to put
into practice the recommendations based on what was observed.

Debriefing after our first Joint Ward Round: Komakech Walter sharing his reflections of how the Joint Pharmacists Ward round went to fellow intern pharmacists seated and attentively listening

Thirdly,
as we settled in, we have been honored to have diploma pharmacy interns join
our team. As we got oriented last week, this week, we have been busy orienting
our colleagues, the pharmacy technicians who have increased on our slim numbers
which promises better efficiency in allowing us better follow up with patients
as they help with dispensing the meds at the ward pharmacies. Less than a month
so far, the challenge we already identified has been the much work expected of
us despite the fact that we are only 6 intern pharmacists each one responsible for
a level in the 9-level storeyed Hospital, directorate of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Mulago Hospital

The
interaction with physicians while at university generated two impressions, one
being positive sometimes and at other times negative. In this setting, we have
had a series of discussions with some of the intern doctors and the positive
attitude and willingness to work together is worth writing about. One of the
intern doctors wondered why he was not always seeing pharmacists on rounds yet
he would have loved to see us always be part of the team. It is sometimes very
easy to blame a party for not doing what is expected of them not until when you
engage them and hear their side of the story then a more rational conclusion
can be made. This engagement with our medical colleagues unpacked the
shortcomings that needed to be bridged so as to get pharmacists more
resourceful and a more harmonious relationship established. Whereas it may be
true that the doctors of yesteryears might find it challenging to accept the
vital roles the pharmacists play as part of the health care team, the new breed
of the medical doctors will find the pharmacist indispensable in providing
pharmaceutical care with the patient being at the centre of focus for the best
possible health care to be provided. It has been a week of learning and
scanning where, how and when we as pharmacists can collaborate with all the
rest of the healthcare team to provide better patient outcomes.